Barb semi ranged?

[Aaiieeee]

I watched the gameplay video and the point where the fat monster is summoned by the 5 summoners, the barb didn't use any close up skills, all 'ranged' skills so he never got hit.
To me thats not what the barbarian is about, but I still think it looks great, well done D3 team.

[konfeta]

Er. He has like one skill that qualifies as ranged, Seismic Slam. Everything else either moves him along with his attack or is simply AoE.

[Grug]

I'm glad they gave the barb two ways to get at distant attackers (seismic slam and Leap Attack). It shores up an insufficiency.

[Sass]

He means "ranged" because some define charge as ranged (never sounded right to me though). He used the charge on him, and is ~ a screen or so away.

That, the slam and leap are the only thing that hits far right?

[satheron]

Go to google, and type in "Diablo 2 throwing barb guide"


Your world has just been turned upside down.

[teh_Thrasher]

meh, i liked it. it showed some strategy... this is not d2 where u can have max block and the monsters only have 5% chance to hit you. AND it makes it more reasonable... of course your not gonna go toe to toe with a super huge demon from hell wielding weapons bigger than you... that just wouldnt compute of course ur gonna use ur speed and ranged attacks to bring the beast down.


u did see it own that merc in one hit didnt you? lol most funny
and it did hit the barbarian and did quite a bit of dmg to it

[Matora]

I like the idea of a semi ranged barb. Even for those who enjoy running in. A ranged attack could be used to build up enough fury to start laying the smackdown up close with lesser risk.

Some may complain but they can do it their own way, besides we're supposed to be using about 6 or so skills.

[VegasNick]

I wonder if you can charge up your rage with a bow attack. Could have a build where you do that then use the AoE when things get hectic. Does the barb have any skills which effect the use of a bow?

[Bladewind]

I think you can only build up Fury only when up close and taking hits or doing hits to enemy directly, where else ranged attacks expend a lot of fury.

but meh that should be the way the barb be played.

In contrast, a ranged char like Amazon should have something like Focus, where getting hit repeatedly screws you up while ranged attacks help build up your Focus or whatever.

[VegasNick]

I think you can only build up Fury only when up close and taking hits or doing hits to enemy directly, where else ranged attacks expend a lot of fury.

but meh that should be the way the barb be played.

In contrast, a ranged char like Amazon should have something like Focus, where getting hit repeatedly screws you up while ranged attacks help build up your Focus or whatever.

It does seem fair and a better way of playing. Unlimited one button-hit everything on the screen with a powerful attack (strafe) was just plain boring. Im sure some will say dont pick the skill, but its hard to undercut your character like that and stay away from such an effective attack. If you have a focus meter or something of the sort, then you get the best of both worlds.

[Valmy]

I think there will be 2 kinds of general builds:

*Ranged oriented Barbs: barbs with huge huge damage, hiting slowly but extremely powerful, with enormous 2 hand weapons , using skills like SS, stuns, and only going melee to finish their enemies or against individual monsters with charge, leaps and the big Hammer of the Ancients. This barbs will invest in pure offensive skills, and could be weaker if hey receive damage. They will focus in crits and could ignore completely some defensive passives. They also need resist states like stun, slow or freeze because they are weak and they need to move very fast from size to size of the screen without alterated states, avoiding being trapped inside mobs of monsters.

They could party well with melee-oriented characters, and with melee mercenaries tanking for him.


*Melee orientd barbs: with frenzy and whirlwind mostly. This barbs perhaps make less damage, but invest in defensive passive skills a lot because there won't be life leech. They'll handle 2 weapons or a shield, and will fight in the middle of mobs of monsters, relying in his fury and ofensive auras (mainly the auras which boost the attack spped) to increase his damage, and relying in his defensive skills, dodges, and resists. They will be killing machines in damage per second, and could resist some damage: they're the pure tanks.

They will work well with casters characters, or archers, and range-mercenaries.



*In the middle: any mix of the mencioned.

[Bladewind]

Ranged barbs will still need to get close in, their mighty long range skills will take Fury to cast and you will need alot. Upclose WW barbs (vanilla barbs) can pretty much remain in the thick of action as they can practically WW for a very long time since Fury is always high.

[Doctor Salvador]

Ranged barbs will still need to get close in, their mighty long range skills will take Fury to cast and you will need alot. Upclose WW barbs (vanilla barbs) can pretty much remain in the thick of action as they can practically WW for a very long time since Fury is always high.

They'll probably still have to switch to other skills often, since the Fury cost outweighs Fury gained on skills like WW (I'm assuming this since otherwise it will be broken).

But I really don't see any slow moving barbs like the ranged one Valmy mentioned. Although lots of barbs may be similar, in that they use two handed weapons and lots of stun, they will still be in the thick of it in order to gain and spend fury efficiently. I see two handed weapon wielders using a lot of Cleave.

[Valmy]

But I really don't see any slow moving barbs like the ranged one Valmy mentioned. Although lots of barbs may be similar, in that they use two handed weapons and lots of stun, they will still be in the thick of it in order to gain and spend fury efficiently. I see two handed weapon wielders using a lot of Cleave.

Sure, Doctor. I'm not meaning they will be pure ranged warriors. No, no, this is not the point, of course not.

I'm just saying they are a bit weaker than the other type. And of course they will need to go melee too often to to recharge fury and blast enemies to hell. They are not archers, or casters, they are still powerful barbarians.

I'm only dividing them into two oriented schemes or groups, meaning the "range-called" ones will have to rely more in his AoE skills, attacking from distances to make powerful damage while someone perhaps tank for him, and then going into the battle to kill the weak survivors easily and getting full of Fury again. Then, retract again when a big group of monsters come to here, and repeat the procese until all were dead.

Sounds interesting tactically, in my opinion.

[konfeta]

It's still hard to swallow calling a char "ranged oriented barbarian" that has a grand total of one skill that kills at range and has the possibility of being having a high fury or cooldown cost. Especially when your primary qualification for calling it ranged, AoE attacks, are available to basically any Barbarian who is in the thick of it and will be used by that Barbarian more often due to superior Fury generation and necessity.

Perhaps the word you were looking for is skirmisher. A Barbarian that bypasses defensive boosts for high damage, mobility and crowd control skills - rather than stand there and tank it he strikes at targets of opportunity to build up the necessary Fury to blast the dangerous targets.

[Valmy]

Yes, konfeta. I think it is just a problem of communication. If I knew English perfectly, probably I could explain better by feelings and thoughts. In my natal language I think I can find some different cool adjectives and good explanations, and of course better fluid. I was only trying to tell the differences between two separated forms of playstyle, just all.

I think you defined better than me the idea I were trying to post before ;) Just so powerful attack from the distance while somebody tanking for him or while monsters became stun, and then going in the middle of the battle cautiously, recovering fury while sending them to hell, but taking care of not receiving too much hits from all sides, being wise enough to maintain a good strategy selecting the near monster to recharge Fury while others tank, or just stun them for safe purposes, until Fury went full, and then run away and hit them all with SS or another skill with multistrike runes or so.

If the term "range-oriented barb" isn't so right, just ignore it heh heh, and read the paragraphs I told about the two barbarian styles I mentioned.